Mexican fugitive's release, visa spur questions

By Jason Buch :
February 14, 2012
: Updated: February 15, 2012 2:30am

A Texas congressman wants to know why the former treasurer of a Mexican border state who's under indictment in that country — and has connections to San Antonio — was granted a visa and was released after his arrest this month in Texas.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, said he asked the State Department why Hector Javier Villarreal, the former head of the tax office for Coahuila who's facing fraud-related charges, was allowed to enter the United States. Villarreal was granted a visa in October, Gohmert said, shortly after Mexican officials released him on bail.

Gohmert said he also wants to know why it is that even after Villarreal was arrested in Tyler this month with a shotgun and $67,000 in cash that he was released.

“It is quite disheartening, and I'm sure it's maddening to Mexican authorities, who we in the U.S. are constantly goading to be a country that believes in the rule of law,” Gohmert said.

Villarreal's family has property across South Texas, including a car wash in Brownsville and a house in the Mesas at Canyon Springs, a Stone Oak-area subdivision adjacent to Champions Ridge, where last week federal agents arrested accused cartel money launderer Antonio Peña-Arguelles. He's also been caught up in a corruption probe in Coahuila, which borders Texas upstream from Laredo to Big Bend National Park.

Villarreal and at least six other men face charges linked to the more than $3 billion in debt racked up by the Coahuila government during the administration of former Gov. Humberto Moreira.

Villarreal is accused of falsifying documents involving $325 million in bank loans to the state shortly before Moreira resigned to become national president of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

State police arrested Villarreal and another former Coahuila official Oct. 28, charging them in connection with suspicious loans. Villarreal was released on bail within hours after being detained.

Days later, Gohmert said, Villarreal obtained a visa through a program that allows foreigners who invest between $500,000 and $1 million to enter the U.S. A State Department official said he could not comment on individual visa cases.

Villarreal is considered a fugitive in Mexico, but he surfaced Feb. 1 when Smith County sheriff's deputies stopped his vehicle heading north through Tyler. They discovered the cash and gun and detained Villarreal, his wife, two children and brother-in-law.

“All we did was make a traffic stop,” Sheriff J.B. Smith said. “We did not realize we had stopped a major person of interest for Mexico and the United States.”

Villarreal was charged with money laundering and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was released Feb. 6 on $20,000 bail, according to jail records. Carl Rusnok an ICE spokesman in Dallas, would not comment on the situation.

Three days later, federal investigators in Mexico issued a warrant for Villarreal's arrest. Members of Mexico's ruling National Action Party, or PAN, are asking the same questions as Gohmert: Why was Villarreal able to enter the U.S., and why was he released?

“We would like to know the answer,” said Juan Molinar, a senior official in PAN, which is pressing for a full investigation into the alleged Coahuila fraud.